Northfield, Minn.–– Carleton College has announced that its Residential Life Task Force has released its final report, recommending the College begin developing plans for a first residential hall to be built in 2008.

The College will begin detailed planning for two sites: adjacent to Goodhue Hall and Cowling Recreation Center.

The work of the task force is the culmination of nearly six months of discussion that included students and staff at Carleton, along with the College’s Board of Trustees. The task force’s recommendations include returning students to on-campus housing, in order to reduce the more than 200 that now choose to live off campus in non-college owned housing. Another goal identified in the report is to alleviate overcrowding in current on-campus student housing residences and to reduce the number of individual small houses used for student residences.

“Vice President Fred Rogers and I are pleased to convey the final report of the group,” said Hudlin Wagner, Carleton’s Dean of Students. “The task force was asked to address the long term as well as the wider contextual questions of residential living on campus. In particular, to address the questions of how much housing, what type should be built, and what sites were appropriate to consider.”

As the College moves forward with this process, it will seek additional input from students and members of the College community on location and design. Additionally, input from the larger Northfield community on issues that involve the neighborhood beyond the campus will be sought, through the College’s newly formed Advisory Council on College and Community Relations and other forums.

“We are excited that the reception to date appears to be very positive for this work,” said Fred Rogers ’72, Carleton Vice President and Treasurer. “We are extremely thankful to the members of the task force who have spent considerable time over this past year working to develop the ideas and insights that represent the substance of the recommendations.”

The full report may be found at: http://apps.carleton.edu/news/assets/HousingReport.pdf